A Second Chance
by Goth Angel UK
Summary: It hurt. More than he had expected. Most of all it hurt that he couldn't say goodbye, couldn't hold her in his arms one last time. Doris Lang was dead. D knelt at the simple stone that marked her grave and rested his forehead against its cold surface.
1. The Meeting

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own only the crazy idea for this story. Vampire Hunter D belongs to Hideyuki Kikuchi, Doctor Who belongs to the Beeb.**

**A/N: Initially I intended to follow the first film but I just read the novel and decided to change**** a few things, so that the story's based predominantly on the book now, apart from Left Hand, who is mostly based on the way they portrayed him in Bloodlust. Whether you like or hate my story, please let me know. Constructive comments are much appreciated. **

It hurt. More than he had expected. Most of all it hurt that he couldn't say goodbye, couldn't hold her in his arms one last time.

Doris Lang was dead. D knelt at the simple stone that marked her grave and rested his forehead against its cold surface. How long he stood like that, he didn't know but for once the symbiote in his hand didn't utter a single word until he was on his horse again, riding away.

'I'm sorry, D. I know you cared a lot about her.'

D didn't reply.

'For once you could admit your feelings, at least to yourself.... Oh, why am I wasting my breath, you never listen to me anyway.'

D just let a deep sigh. The symbiote fell silent, as he knew for D that was as close to a confession as he'd ever get.

*****

It hurt. More than he had expected. Most of all it hurt that he couldn't say goodbye, couldn't hold her in his arms one last time.

He had lost Rose. His brave, beautiful, brilliant Rose. The Doctor stood in the console room, the lone tear tracing a wet path down his cheek. He had said goodbye, and yet he hadn't. He hadn't said the most important thing, the one thing he had burned the supernova for. It felt as if it had been all in vain. The Time Lord, cheated by time, what an irony.

He stood like that for a long time, letting the Tardis float through the vortex. Then he shook himself out of the trance and started pushing various buttons on the console. He would stay away from Earth for a while. For a good while. Let's go somewhere he'd never been before.

*****

As D rode through the field, he heard a strange, grating noise which seemed to grow louder and louder. In the next moment a big blue box appeared to his left, gradually fading into view. The hunter stopped his horse and watched silently as a man opened the door and stepped outside, squinting lightly in the afternoon sun.

'Oh, hello there. Um... can you tell me where I am? Oh, and when.'

The dhampir spurred his horse and slowly rode off. The man ran after him.

'Hey, wherever we are, surely that would be considered very bad manners! I asked a very simple question, and I get treated as if I had asked you the radius of the Medusa Cascade! Or would that be perimeter? Yes, the perimeter of the Medusa Cascade!'

D stopped his horse and looked at the man, no emotion betrayed in his gaze.

'Blimey, you're not much of a talker, are you?'

'I only speak when there's something important that needs saying,' the man said in a deep, melodic voice.

'Oh, thanks. I take it my question was insignificant?' The Doctor had begun to get a little bit annoyed but also very intrigued by this silent man. He strode to D and peered up at his face. And gasped. For a fraction of the second the Time Lord felt intimidated and mesmerised by the sheer, cold beauty of the face above him. Black locks waved around pale, luminous face and violet eyes, framed by long lashes, looked dispassionately at him.

'Who are you?'

The hunter was surprised to see eyes so impossibly old and full of sorrow on someone so young. He found himself answering:

'My name is D. I am a vampire hunter.'

After a moment the Doctor gained composure.

'Lovely to meet you, D. I'm the Doctor. But come on, vampires don't exist, surely you know that?'

D looked down on him impassively.

'All right, I won't argue. If you can just tell me where and when I am, you can be on your way.'

'You are near the Frontier's west border. The year is 12,100.'

'Oh… And that would be… which planet?'

'Earth.' D didn't show any surprise at the strange question but merely looked impatient to go on. His horse, sharing the same feelings, pawed the ground beneath.

The Doctor seemed to grow suddenly weary.

'Of all the time and space there is, I can never escape that planet, can I?' he muttered quietly to himself. D had no problem hearing it, however, and a thought half-formed in his mind. He stored it away for late deliberation and, making a decision rather unusual for him, said:

'I am set for Castle Stellaréa. I have been hired to return to her parents a girl kidnapped by the vampire who owns the castle. You can join me and see for yourself whether vampires don't exist.'

'Erm... yeah, that sounds good. Thing is, am I supposed to follow you on feet?'

Before he could say anything else, the Doctor felt two strong arms lift him up and put him on the saddle, in front of D.

'Right, um, thanks. Is that a robot horse, by the way?'

'Cybernetic.'

'I see. Do you travel on your own?'

'Yes.'

'Yeah, me too... That's the best way... No complications.' The last part of the sentence was said so quietly even D could barely hear it.

The dhampir was surprised again by the hidden bitterness and pain he detected in the stranger's voice.

'You lost someone.' It wasn't really a question, more of a statement.

The Doctor was silent for a few moments. When he spoke, his voice was quiet.

'Yes. I had this companion... Rose, her name was Rose... She was brilliant... and I lost her.'

'What happened?'

'We were fighting these... creatures - Daleks and Cybermen. I had to send them in the void... the space between universes. Rose fell too... her father saved her... well, her father from a parallel universe, that is... She's fine now, she's with her family but... I will never see her again. I can't. The worlds are sealed off again.' The Doctor fell silent, surprised by his own actions. He had just told a complete stranger about Rose, the most precious thing he had left in the universe.

'I see.' For the first time since he had met the Doctor, there was something like an emotion in the hunter's voice. Something like compassion.

The Time Lord was surprised to hear it. But as soon as it appeared, it was gone and D's next question was said in his usual detached tone:

'Why did you come here?'

'Who, me? Oh, just passing by, really, didn't even mean to come back to Earth. But here I am, and on my way to meet vampires. Brilliant!' He grinned brightly at D. 'I still say vampires don't exist though, I mean, haemophilia is a real enough illness but turning into bats and supernatural strength? Nah, that's just people's imagination running wild. Don't you agree?'

'I kill vampires. All the rumours about them are real.'

The Doctor looked at D. Something in his features niggled at him, until he arched his eyebrow.

'Are _you_ a vampire?'

'My father was a vampire. I'm a dhampir - half-vampire, half-human.'

'I see,' mused the Doctor. 'It's getting interesting.'

They travelled in silence till they got to a small village.

'Now, that's positively quaint!' the Doctor exclaimed. And indeed, the village looked like it was taken from an old Western film. The people they met on the way in were dressed in 1800s style. They didn't seem too keen on walking anywhere near the vampire hunter and his companion, the Doctor noticed, but moved as far away as possible from them.

'You've certainly got their respect,' he noted.

'I'm a dhampir. They trust me as little as they'd trust any vampire,' D stated dispassionately.

'Doesn't that bother you?'

'I'm a hunter,' the dhampir said as if that explained everything. The Doctor gave him a long look, trying to see behind the distant expression. Whatever he saw satisfied his curiosity for the moment, as he went back to observing the village.

When they reached the village inn, D got off the horse, helped the Doctor down and tied the animal to a post.

'What's next then?' the Doctor was back to his usual self, looking as eager as a puppy.

'We stay here for the night and set off for the castle early in the morning.'

'Oh, all right, we can meet the locals then,' the Doctor grinned. The dhampir lifted slightly his delicately shaped eyebrow but didn't say anything.

The Doctor's enthusiasm was just a little dampened by the fact that the inn only had one free room, which meant he'd have to share it with his new travel partner.


	2. Confessions

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own only the crazy idea for this story. Vampire Hunter D belongs to Hideyuki Kikuchi, Doctor Who belongs to the Beeb.**

**A/N: Initially I intended to follow the first film but I just read the novel and decided to change**** a few things, so that the story's based predominantly on the book now, apart from Left Hand, who is mostly based on the way they portrayed him in Bloodlust. Whether you like or hate my story, please let me know. Constructive comments are much appreciated. **

Once in the room, after spending a few moments in silence, the Doctor decided it was time for another chat, mostly because he didn't like being quiet for too long.

'So, what's the plan for tomorrow? Creep in the castle, get the girl and clear out?'

'It might not be that easy.'

'But the vampire should be asleep during the day, right?'

'Not necessarily.'

'Oh...' the Doctor's grin fell a little. 'Still, that'll give me a chance to have a chat with the fella.'

'Sure, just watch your neck.'

The Doctor looked up at D, surprised. Even though the dhampir still had that distant expression, he could have sworn the hunter had actually attempted a joke.

'That's the spirit, D, I knew you had it somewhere in you,' he heard a strange gruff voice which sounded as if it was coming from D's left hand.

'You're out of line and in case you haven't noticed, we're not alone.'

'Don't be stupid, D, of course I've noticed. I wanted to say hello and congratulate the guy who actually got you to make a joke. Besides, it'd be refreshing to have a chat with someone who replies with more than one word.'

D's left hand rose up, apparently by its own accord and the Doctor found himself looking at a good-natured face shaped in the hunter's palm.

'Oh, hello there! Lovely to meet you.... whatever you are,' the Doctor grinned brightly.

'I think what I'll soon be is cut off, right, D?' the symbiote chuckled. D didn't say anything but his silence was threatening enough.

'Back to topic, who are you then, stranger?'

'Oh, I'm just the...'

'Yes, you are the Doctor, we've already established that, I think. Where are you from?'

The Doctor fell silent for a few moments, then, feeling that for some unfathomable reason he could trust those two, he went on:

'I'm from Gallifrey, in the constellation of Kasterborous. I'm a Time Lord.'

'Ooh, that's fancy,' remarked the symbiote.

'It is, isn't it,' the Doctor beamed at him. 'So what are you then?'

'I'm a symbiote. D here would probably tell you my main job is to annoy him, but I can actually be rather useful.'

'In what way?'

'Oh, this and that – sucking spells and other matter, inducing sleep, reviving D when someone's managed to kill him… not that it happens very often, I can assure you.'

'Very handy,' the Doctor grinned. He was really amused by the strange couple. The symbiote chuckled again.

'I like him, D. Are all Time Lords as funny, Doctor?'

The Doctor felt a familiar pang stab at his hearts.

'No, they weren't. They were selfish, arrogant and narrow-minded pricks but they are all gone now. Gone with Gallifrey.'

'What happened?' the symbiote looked at him with sympathy. The Doctor stared at the wall, his brown eyes soft and pained.

'There was a war, a Time War. Everyone lost. The Shining World of the Seven Systems is gone forever. I am the last of the Time Lords.'

'I am sorry for your loss,' the dhampir uttered quietly, while for a change the symbiote kept quiet.

'Yes… I seem to be cursed… in the end I always loose everything that's dear to me,' the Doctor said bitterly, old memories of a burnt orange sky and silver-leafed trees mixing with more recent ones of a brilliant smile and shining hazel eyes that looked at him with unwavering devotion.

D looked at him.

'That's the curse of everyone who lives as long as we do.'

The Doctor lifted his eyes in surprise towards the dhampir.

'How did you know?'

'Your eyes.'

'Aah…'

The three of them fell quiet. After a long while the Doctor was again the one to break the silence, back to his cheerful self:

'So, do they serve any food here?'

'You'll have to go down to the bar,' the symbiote helpfully suggested.

'Thanks,' the Doctor beamed at him and set off to investigate what food he could get.

'D, I know what you're thinking. It's not a good idea.'

As the hunter remained quiet, the symbiote went on:

'She's dead. Nothing you do could change that.'

'I could say goodbye,' D said quietly. The symbiote was so surprised by that candid confession, that for a few moments he could only gape.

'Never thought I'd live to hear you confess to something like that, D! Well, well, well... I guess it won't harm...' the symbiote went on muttering to himself while D sat in the room's only chair and lowered his hat over his eyes.

He was still in the same position when after some time the Doctor flew in the room and lowered the latch on the door.

'Blimey! Those locals are not the friendliest type!'

The symbiote chuckled. 'News goes fast in small villages and people don't like anyone who's related to vampires or dhampirs in any way.'

'Aah, yes, right. Better stay in the room then. Glad I managed to get some dinner before all hell broke loose.'

The Doctor then looked at D: 'So, um... don't you need any food... or blood, or whatever it is you feed on?'

'I'm fine.'

'Right. Erm, I'll leave you to get some rest then. Do you want to have the bed? I very rarely need sleep.'

'I'm fine in the chair.'

'Okay then, don't say I didn't offer.' The Doctor stretched on the bed, arms under his head and tried not to think of Rose. He only succeeded for a couple of minutes until the oh, so familiar scenes began their dance before his eyes again – Rose arguing with him about the Tardis being in her head, Rose looking breathtakingly stunning in her Victorian dress, Rose numb at the scene of her father's death, Rose's lips pressed on his - if only it had really been her and not Cassandra!, Rose in her pink dress and matching helmet, Rose sacrificing herself to push the lever back in place, but most of all the times she had smiled for him, poking her tongue out playfully, the times he had felt no one else existed in the world but the two of them.

D was also tortured by memories - of Doris fighting him bravely, then asking him passionately to help her, Doris standing naked in front of him, Doris pressing herself to his chest, the sweet, bewitching softness of her lips as they touched his for the first time... then for the second, as he came back to her, the soft moans that escaped from her delicately-shaped mouth when he claimed her as his, Doris sleeping quietly while he watched over her, Doris fighting fiercely her tears the second time he ran away from her. He felt again the burning need and longing for her he had experienced every time she was near.

It was going to be a long night.


	3. The Rescue

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own only the crazy idea for this story. Vampire Hunter D belongs to Hideyuki Kikuchi, Doctor Who belongs to the Beeb.**

**A/N: Initially I intended to follow the first film but I just read the novel and decided to change**** a few things, so that the story's based predominantly on the book now, apart from Left Hand, who is mostly based on the way they portrayed him in Bloodlust. Whether you like or hate my story, please let me know. Constructive comments are much appreciated. **

Neither of the two men slept that night. As soon as the sun was up, the Doctor jumped from the bed and grinned.

'Off to Castle Stellaréa then.'

D rose from his chair, gathered his sword and quietly headed for the door.

'I see why you like me, erm... Left Hand?'

'Indeed, Doctor, you can't imagine how refreshing talking to you has been,' the symbiote chuckled.

As they mounted the horse, the Doctor without D's help this time, they felt the hostile stares of the early passers-by. The two men had been riding in silence for an hour or so, when the Doctor heard D's voice: 'We might encounter mutants. Look well around, Doctor.'

'Right, erm, will do. What sort of mutants?'

'Any.'

'And D's the kind of man who'd jump right on top of a sand manta if it stands on his way, so don't say I didn't warn you,' the symbiote said gruffly.

'Brilliant,' the Doctor grinned brightly.

After a few moments of silence D surprised the Doctor.

'Do you travel in your blue box?'

'Yep,' the Time Lord popped the final consonant.

'In time as well as space?'

'That's right.'

D was quiet for so long, the Doctor began to think the so-called conversation had ended, when he heard the dhampir's melodic voice: 'Can you take me back to three months ago?'

'It depends,' the Doctor cautiously said, frowning a little. 'Why?'

'I want to say goodbye to a friend.'

The Time Lord was astonished to hear the slightest hint of sadness in the hunter's voice. It was that rare display of emotion that made him say yes, adding: 'But only if it's a short visit and you know for sure you're not going to meet yourself or do anything that could change the future.'

The dhampir gave a light nod.

'You lost someone too, then?'

'You could say that,' the symbiote intervened, chuckling lightly, before D had the chance to say anything. 'She's D's lost love.'

The Doctor's eyes widened, and his mouth formed an 'Oh.'

'That is not for you to say,' the hunter's voice was murderously calm and he grasped the reigns tightly, thus effectively preventing the symbiote from saying anything else.

The Doctor was more than surprised at the discovery that, hidden somewhere behind the thick armour, the hunter had a heart. He thought of Rose and how he had burned a supernova to say goodbye.

'What was her name?'

'Doris. Doris Lang.'

Just as the Time Lord opened his mouth, an enormous ball of red light appeared in front of them, making the horse rear up. D pulled his impossibly long sword out of the sheath with an inhuman speed and before the Doctor knew it, he had slashed the creature in half.

'Did you really have to do that?' the Doctor frowned.

'It would have killed us in seconds.'

'I could have stopped it without killing it.'

D didn't say anything but the symbiote agitatedly exclaimed: 'That thing would have killed us before you had time to blink, Doctor! For once I completely agree with D's methods.'

The frown between the Doctor's brows deepened but he decided to keep quiet. They rode in silence and before long the imposing towers of the castle rose on the horizon. There was a small forest on its left, and that's where D directed the horse to. He threw the horse's reigns over a thick branch, then headed towards the massive wall that encircled the castle. The Doctor followed him cautiously, sonic screwdriver in hand. Soon they reached an imposing wooden door and as D readied himself to slash through it with his sword, the Time Lord took aim and adjusted the settings. The door flung open and he grinned.

'There. The pen, or in that case screwdriver, is mightier than the sword.'

D lightly inclined his head in silent appreciation and strode forward, the Doctor following close behind. They encountered a few other less than friendly mutants on their way into the castle but D took care of them more than effortlessly.

'D, I don't like that. It shouldn't be so easy.'

'I know.'

The Doctor remained quiet, the only sign of his disapproval of the ease with which D dispensed of the mutants being the deep crease between his brows.

Soon they entered an ornately furnished bedroom, where the kidnapped girl lay in a deep, comatose sleep. Just as D was about to wake her up, five vampires surrounded him, appearing out of thin air.

'Watch out, D!'

As one of them slashed at him, the hunter jumped and sliced him in half, turning quickly to block another one's sword with inhuman speed and grace. He dealt with the vampire in seconds, then flew forward towards a third attacker, simultaneously avoiding the sword of the fourth vampire. Just as he had impaled one of the two remaining vampires, the other jumped at him and slashed across his chest, another five vampires materialising behind him. The Doctor, having managed to adjust the settings on the sonic screwdriver, pointed it at them and breathed a sigh of relief as they all dropped on the floor. The only problem was D was on the floor as well, breathing heavily.

'Silver... blade...' he managed to utter before he lost consciousness.

'D? Right, silver... silver... aaah!' The Doctor adjusted once more the settings of the screwdriver and aimed at the big gash on D's chest.

'That should extract any silver particles left in the wound, then cauterise it... There we go!' he exclaimed triumphantly, as the gash began to close, looking less and less angry and deep.

D opened his eyes to see the Doctor's brown orbs staring intently at him.

'Aah, brilliant, welcome back, D!' the Time Lord beamed, trying to help him up.

'I'm fine,' the hunter shook him off and rose on his feet. After a few moments of silence he said quietly: 'Thank you.'

'Don't mention it,' the Doctor gave him another brilliant smile.

'Did you just thank him, D? Never thought I'd live to hear that either!'

'What did you do to them?' D ignored the symbiote.

'Sonic waves – rendered them unconscious. Should last for a few hours and I don't want to be them when they wake up. It has the effects of the worst hangover you can imagine. What I don't get is how come you weren't affected, and why were they awake in the middle of the day.'

'I have almost no vampiric weaknesses. And they had Time-Bewitching Incense - it changes day into night and night into day.'

'Aaaah, right! That's very interesting! You'll have to tell me about it later. Now, let's get the girl and clear off before those fellahs have woken up.' As he was speaking, the Doctor pulled the top lip of one of the dead vampires to the sight of two gleaming fangs. He nodded to himself, then got a few things out of his pocket, and pricked the vampire's finger, extracting some blood in a small tube.

'There. I'm done now.'

Meanwhile, D had woken the girl with the help of the symbiote and, silently accepting her profuse thanks, helped her across the room, nodding to the Doctor to follow.

'Erm... how are we going to fit on the horse?

'Don't worry about it,' the dhampir said in his even voice.

'Right, okay then,' the Doctor cheerfully acquiesced and followed him across the big courtyard to the still-open door.

When they reached the horse, D mounted it, helping the girl up in front of him, then said:

'Can you sit behind me?'

'Oh, yeah, no problem,' the Doctor grinned while climbing over the horse's back.

'Hold on tight,' D said impassively. The Doctor only had time to grab the hunter's waist before the horse bolted forwards in a speed that a normal horse would have never been able to reach.

The ride to the girl's home town was speedy and relatively uneventful, bar the few mutants they encountered, which D quickly dealt with, to the Doctor's silent displeasure. The girl was mostly quiet, still in shock of all that had happened, and spent a good deal of the travel dosing, leaning on D's wide chest. If the hunter was uncomfortable with that, he never showed it.

After delivering the girl to her parents and receiving the rest of his money, the dhampir headed the horse to the place where he had met the Doctor. Very uncharacteristically, he felt a thrill of bittersweet excitement pass through his heart at the thought that he would see Doris again.


	4. Purging Demons

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I own only the crazy idea for this story. Vampire Hunter D belongs to Hideyuki Kikuchi, Doctor Who belongs to the Beeb.**

**A/N: Initially I intended to follow the first film but I just read the novel and decided to change**** a few things, so that the story's based predominantly on the book now, apart from Left Hand, who is mostly based on the way they portrayed him in Bloodlust. Whether you like or hate my story, please let me know. Constructive comments are much appreciated. **

'Sooo, what exactly is that Time-Bewitching Incense then?' the Doctor asked after a few boring hours of riding under the afternoon sun.

'It's a chemical compound that alters the normal temporal effects. It makes day appear as night and night as day. The vampires succeeded in finding the formula after years of experimenting. Very few know what the components are, as the vampires keep the secret well-hidden.'

'Oh, that's clever! That's very, very clever! Even the Time Lords didn't dabble with time in that way!' the Doctor grinned, quite impressed. 'But then, even though they did have a good idea of how to make something like that, they wouldn't really need it. For vampires, however, it must be quite literally life-saving.'

'It is indeed,' the symbiote confirmed in a slightly muffled voice from over the reigns.

'So, how come vampiric science is so advanced when the villages look like they've come straight from the 1800s?'

'There was a nuclear war. When it ended, not much was left and mankind regressed back to the Middle Ages. When the vampires stepped back into the picture, they rebuilt the planet to their own taste, called themselves the Nobility and ruled over the humans.'

'They are hardly the dominant race now though, aren't they? What happened?'

'The vampires' energy started declining slowly, and when they realized that, humans rebelled, and kept fighting them at any opportunity. And, transient guests as vampires are, they eventually faded away. Now the only purpose of the ones left is to terrorize the humans on the Frontier.'

'I see.'

Just as the Doctor said that, the blue distinctive shape of the Tardis could be seen in the near distance.

'Do we leave the horse here?'

'Well, I don't usually take animals in the Tardis but if you promise he'll behave, I don't think it'll be a problem to take him with us.'

D didn't ask how it was that two men and a horse could fit in the small blue box; he just nodded and dismounted. The Doctor jumped down off the hose and unlocked the Tardis.

As D stepped through the door, the horse following obediently, something very akin to appreciation gleamed in the hunter's eyes. The symbiote, after having lifted itself up to see, much to D's chagrin that he had taken control of the dhampir's hand without permission, was much more vocal in his admiration:

'That's some place you've got, Doctor!'

'It is, isn't it?' the Time Lord beamed. 'It's called a Tardis, stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.'

'So how come it's bigger on the inside?' the symbiote was genuinely interested.

'Oh, it's very simple, really, the interior exists in a different dimension to the exterior, it's what's called 'dimensionally transcendental'.'

'I see. Those Time Lords must have been a pretty damn clever bunch.'

'They were. But they were never willing to use their brains for the well-being of anyone but themselves. That's why I've always been an outsider, even when Gallifrey was still flourishing.' The Doctor's expression grew dark.

'Sorry, Doc.'

'It's okay.'

After a short conversation with D to determine the coordinates, the Doctor started pushing levers and pressing buttons in his usual mad fashion and when the Tardis landed with a bump which nearly sent all of them on the floor, he said:

'Here we are, outside that door – Doris Lang's farm. D, remember, be careful not to affect the future.'

The dhampir nodded and strode out of the Tardis.

Doris was outside, tending her little herd, when she saw in the distance a familiar black figure approaching the farm, a figure she'd somehow managed to convince herself would never come back.

'D!' she breathed out, hope and disbelief fighting for dominance in her lovely eyes. The girl stood frozen until he was only about ten feet away, then stepped forward hesitantly. In a few long strides the hunter was standing next to her; then, before she knew it, the girl was in his arms, breathing in the light, indefinable scent that was so painfully familiar. D rested his cheek on her head and for a few long moments they stood still, like two statues frozen in time.

When Doris lifted her head to look into D's eyes, she saw for the first time feelings - raw need, admiration... and something even stronger than that. The dhampir had taken all his shields down and the thought that he had done it for her left Doris breathless.

'Is Dan here?'

'No, he went to the town to get some supplies and to see a few friends. He'll be back tomorrow.'

D nodded quietly. She took his hand and led him into the house and to her bedroom. Once there, D took her in his inhumanly strong arms and laid her gently down on the bed, leaning over her on his elbows. Doris lifted her hand and touched his pale cheek, brushing his soft black locks away. Agonizingly slowly he brought his face down until his lips brushed hers in a feather-light touch. She responded with passion pent up for too long, igniting something in him he had been fighting forever. Later, she wouldn't remember them taking their clothes off, or any other minor details, she would only remember the desperate passion with which they held each other as they soared up to the heavens, and the sad love she was allowed for the first time to see warming D's cold eyes.

As they lay naked, limbs entwined in a lock neither wanted to get out of, Doris looked at the inhumanely beautiful face of the hunter.

'Are you going to leave me again, D?'

'I have to,' there was deep sadness in D's usually emotionless voice. 'But I'm here now. I wanted to tell you that I...'

'I know now, D. But if you say it, I'll never be able to let you go.'

D pressed his lips to hers in silent understanding.

'Wherever I go, you'll always be part of me.'

'You'll always be part of me too, D. Now go, before I change my mind,' her eyes shone brightly with unshed tears and defiance.

'Goodbye, Doris.' The way the hunter pronounced her name nearly broke her. She tore away from his arms with a tremendous power of will.

'Goodbye, D.'

No more words were said as the dhampir donned his black garbs. With one last glance, he strode off, out of the house and her life, to the blue box waiting for him.

When he entered, the Doctor looked at him in a silent question. D nodded lightly, then sat on the pilot's chair and lowered his wide-rimmed hat over his face.

The Doctor felt as if a few of his personal demons had been purged by helping the hunter.

'Thank you, D.'

'I know he wouldn't say it again, but I will – thank _you_, Doctor,' the symbiote quipped from D's hand.

The Doctor smiled.

* * *

**A/N: Happy New Year everyone! That's my little story finished now, I hope you have enjoyed it. Let me know what you thought of it, comments are much appreciated, even if they are negative ones.**


End file.
